Hospitals in Punjab put on high alert to deal with any emergency

Rawalpindi: All public sector hospitals in the Punjab province including the three teaching hospitals in town have been put on high alert to deal with any untoward situation after the protests against acquittal of Aasia Bibi by Supreme Court of Pakistan from blasphemy allegations.

The provincial health department has directed the hospitals that keeping in view the law and order situation, the hospitals shall remain vigilant to face any untoward incident, said Medical Superintendent at District Headquarters Hospital Dr. Khalid Randhawa while talking to ‘The News’ on Thursday.

He added the directives were issued on Wednesday when the protesters start gathering at various roads. He said the teaching hospitals in town have already made special arrangements to deal with any bigger emergency.

Dr. Randhawa who has additional charge of the seat of MS Benazir Bhutto Hospital said so far no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere in town and the situation is absolutely normal at the teaching hospitals.

He said the allied hospitals have been keeping limited number of beds vacated for managing any disaster while in case of any emergency, the allied hospitals would be able to vacate greater number of beds as per requirement, he said.

The BBH which is located on main Benazir Bhutto Road, however, has made special arrangements to strengthen its emergency department to deal with greater number of emergency cases in case of any clashes between protesters and personnel of law enforcement agencies.

The administration at the allied hospitals including BBH, DHQ Hospital and Holy Family Hospital has directed all the staff including nurses, paramedics and doctors to remain vigilant. Dr. Randhawa said the protest has not affected working of the hospitals as BBH and DHQ Hospital received normal influx of patients on Thursday at their outpatients departments exactly as per routine while all the staff reached hospitals in time.